Toyota tops reliability rankings

While the Toyota company (if you define Toyota narrowly as Toyota and Lexus combined and leave out other Toyota controlled brands, some of which are not sold in the US) had the best average ranking, it should be noted that Toyota as a seperate brand finished fifth behind Lexus, Mercury, Buick, and Cadillac. Toyota as a brand was significantly less "dependable" than Mercury as a brand (179 problems wer 100 vehicles for Toyota vs. 153 problems per 100 vehicles for Mercury). Of course, it is my opinion the survey is virtually worhtless. It more a measuement of advertising sucess than actual dependability. And I think it is pretty obvious that Toyota has spewed out more BS on dependability than any other company in history (although Buick is a close second). It Toyota owners would get off the Toyota advertsing crack, they might realize that they are paying thousands more for "extra" ordinary cars.

Ed

An> Toyota tops reliability rankings

I agree it's worthless. What counts is an individual's experience. In several decades of owning cars from most major manufacturers worldwide I find that my current Toyotas are my most reliable so far.

Your experience apparently differs. I hope you're as pleased with your current choice as I am with mine. That's the nice thing about diversity.

I can't substantiate that one way or the other.

Certainly I paid a premium for my Prius, although not for my Avalon. Both have exceeded my expectations, so I don't believe I was deceived by claims. Influenced perhaps, but not deceived. Of course, you and I speak only for ourselves.

Hey, Ed, all I do is change my oil. Anything else I fix when it breaks. I have one Corolla with 259,000 miles, another Corolla had 240,000 miles, and a Honda with 189,000 miles, along with a few that only made it to 100,000 or 120,000 before I sold or traded them.

How long do you suppose a Chevy or a Dodge would have made it, given my 'maintenance' habits?

I have owned Chevys, Dodges, Fords, Volvos, Volkswagens and a Honda, with the odd Saab thrown in for good measure. All were New or Low mileage.

NONE have held up as well as my Toyotas, with the exception of the Honda.

Unlike a Volkswagen, Volvo, BMW or Saab, when you buy a Toyota, you only have to pay for it once.

Please don't feed the trolls.

"Hachiroku" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@ae86.gts...

We all have different experiences. I jsut don't think Toyotas are anything special in terms of reliability (neither especially good nor especially bad). I have owned one, my currrent SO has owned one, and several friends still own them. To make matter more complicated when discussing reliability, different people seem to have different CARMA and different people have different ideas of what is or isn't a porblem. My parents have owned nothing but Fords since the late 50's. In all that time, I'd only rate one as a problem vehicle, and to be fair the problem was mostly related to dealer incompetence. The last six Fords my parents owned never saw the dealer again after they took delivery. I've owned a more diverse selection of cars than my parentd (Ford, GM, Chrysler, Toyota, Mazda, Nissan, Audi, several British brands, etc.). I still rate the Toyota Cressida we owned as the biggest POS ever sold. Second place had to be a Chrysler. I never spent much money on the Chrysler becasue I got rid of it after 10 months and all the problems were covered under warranty. I was stuck with the d&*^ Toytoa becasue my ex-wife, for some unknowable reason, really liked it - despite the d&*^ thing leaving her on the side of the road multiple times. I am sure if you asked her she would highly rate the car, but then I was paying the bills for the repairs. Likewise my SO had a Toyota Camry. Again she really liked the car. However, I remember the oil leaks, the bad paint, the crumbling plastic, the expensive parts, etc. Some people just have a blind spot to problems. My Sister is like that with her current Honda. I wouldn't be caught dead owning the car. The paint is peeling off the bumpers, the interior is faded, and some of the plastic is cracking. Everything under the hood is covered in black goop, although there are no stains on the pavement. The clutch slips, but not to bad (yet). The headlights are yellow. It uses a quart of oil about every 1000 miles. etc. She loves the car. She tells everyone how trouble free it is (she has apparently forgotten about the bad plug wires, the parts falling off, the paint falling off, the oil consumption, the rotted out exhaust, etc., etc). If you listened to her without knowing the facts, you'd think this was a perfect car. Driving a car

200,000 miles doesn't impress me, both my Sister and my SO have done that (heck the SO has a Chrysler mini-van over 200,000 miles) . Now if you let my 16 year old drive your car and it makes 50,000 miles, then I'd be impressed.

Ed